Edge of Defeat
by ImperialWyvern
Summary: Sonic has stopped every single one of Dr. Eggman's plans throughout the year. However after one slip up, Eggman finally defeats Sonic! But one failure is not enough to keep Sonic down. With Eggman now in a seat of power, Sonic will do whatever it takes to stop this madman! (This is my first ever attempt at a fanfic, I hope it's enjoyable!)
1. Defeated

On a bright and sunny day near a big Oak tree in the middle of a grassy field, Sonic the Hedgehog was deep in thought as he sat near the tree, leaning his back against it. With his arms crossed and eyes closed. Although it looked like he was sleeping, Sonic was actually dealing with conflicting thoughts in his head. It had been two years since the last time the mad scientist Dr. Eggman had plotted against Sonic and his friends. However after their last encounter it was almost as if Eggman just vanished out of nowhere. _"Where could he have gone?"_ Sonic thought to himself. _"It doesn't make sense that an obsessive mad man like him would just straight up disappear. He has to be planning something."  
_  
Before Sonic could finish his thought he was interrupted by a familiar voice. "Hey Sonic!" the voice called out as Sonic began to open his eyes. In front of him stood Miles Tails Prower, Sonic's closest friend. Tails seemed to be holding a newspaper in his hand as he walked toward Sonic.

"Oh hey Tails!" Sonic replied. "What's up?"

Tails stopped in front of Sonic with a concerned look on his face. "Sonic you look worried, are you thinking about Eggman again?"

"It's just so weird you know? How someone like him could just vanish into thin air." Sonic responded as he began getting up.

"I've told not to worry about." Tails sighed. "He obviously just decided to give up after all these years. You did stop every single one of his plans he's ever done."

"Heh, I guess you're right." Sonic chuckled. "It's just been really boring lately without anything to do. No grand adventures like the good old days.

Tails smiled as he began unfolding the newspaper in his hand. "Well have I got good news for you." Tails opened up the newspaper and showed it to Sonic. "There's been news reports all over place about some really strange lights showing up near the bottom of the sea. However the source of these lights is so deep under the ocean that no manmade submarine can go deep enough to reach it without getting crushed by the water pressure."

"Well if no submarine can go deep enough to reach it, then what's so exciting about it.?" Sonic asked curiously.

"No manmade submarine could reach it, but a Tailsmade submarine can!" Tails chuckled. "I've been running some tests for the past few days, and I've finally developed a submarine that can go deep enough into the ocean to survive the water pressure and show us what's actually down there!"

"Sounds like a plan! Sonic exclaimed as his mood lifted. "So when do we get started.?"

"I can get us going later today if you're up for it." Tails responded. As he looked back at the newspaper.

"Alright! let's going!" Sonic cheered.

A few hours later that same day Sonic and Tails were making final preparations inside the submarine near an old factory right outside the city by the ocean. The Submarine was quite small with a red paintjob and the word "Tails" labeled on the side. "Alright, we're ready to go." Tails announced as he began starting the submarine. Sonic sat in his seat and gave Tails a thumbs up to signal that he was ready to go. Tails began pressing buttons on control panel in the submarine. "We're diving in Three... Two... One!" As Tails finished the countdown the submarine dived into deep into the ocean. As it plunged deeper in the depths of the sea, the sunlight that lit up the water began to fade until soon the submarine was submerged into darkness. Tails began to pilot the submarine, as they began their search for the source of the mysterious lights.

"It sure is dark down here." Sonic mentioned. "Even with the headlights on everything is pitch black."

"That's what the bottom the sea is like." Tail explained. "There's no sunlight here to light it up for us."

At that same moment the radar onboard began to pick up some strange mechanical activity. Tails began looking into it. "It looks like there's cave a little deeper down here. And I think that's where the source of the strange lights are coming from." As they began to enter the strange cave, what they saw was almost unbelievable. An entire underwater factory the size of two football stadiums was sitting within the cave walls. That however wasn't even the most interesting part. A giant symbol branded the factory, it was the symbol for Dr. Eggman himself.

"Eggman! So this is where's he's been hiding these past two years!" Sonic yelled as he got up from his seat.

"Hang on a second Sonic." Tails responded. "I think I see a docking platform up ahead. This will be a good chance to investigate what's been going on."

As Tails docked the submarine onto the factory, Sonic quickly leaped out. "Let's see what old Egghead's been up to lately." he remarked.

"Hang on a second, I still have to fix up our submarine so that we'll be able to g back home after we're done here." Tails replied. "It may be able to withstand water pressure this deep, but it still took quite a bit of damage."

"You worry about that. I'll run a head and check this place out." Sonic responded.

"Here take this." Tails said as he threw what looked like a watch toward Sonic. "This watch will allow us to communicate with each other while you're inside there. Just be careful."

"Thanks Tails." Sonic remarked as he quickly caught the watch and took off.

Sonic quickly began running through the entire factory, exploring every nook and cranny. "Tails' radar picked up some sort of mechanical noises coming from within this place." Sonic mentioned to himself. "That means something somewhere is active in here. And if that something is Eggman, I'll be sure to find out what he's planning."

After much exploration, Sonic came across a giant steel door with Eggman's logo printed on it. Out of curiosity, Sonic began to knock on the door. As soon as he did it began to slide open leading to a giant empty room, with steel walls on each side. Sonic entered the room, however the moment he did the steel doors quickly closed behind him. "Hey, what gives!?" Sonic shouted in a panic, as he attempted to open up the steel doors that just closed behind him.

"Well, well, well. Long time no see my old friend." A familiar voice called out to Sonic. With a surprised expression, Sonic quickly turned around to find another steel door on the other side of the room opening up. The figure who stood through its doorway however was all too familiar.

"Eggman!" Sonic shouted. "I knew you were up no good!"

"Well, that's not way to treat an old friend now is it?" The maniacal scientist exclaimed as he walked through the door stroking his mustache.

"What is this whole facility for!? What are you planning!?" Sonic demanded.

"Why nothing my dear friend. I just needed a place to call home after I gave up on all my world domination schemes." Eggman answered with a genuine smile on his face. "Oh Orbot, could you do me a favor and get some tea for our guests?"'

"Oh yes, right away Sir." A mechanical voice called out from another room.

"A factory this deep underwater isn't somewhere that anyone would consider a home." Sonic responded while clenching his fists. "Someone like you doesn't just turn over a new leaf just like that.

"Oh, I think the tea is ready." Eggman quickly replied as he turned towards the door behind him and began to walk out. "I'll just be a moment."

After Eggman left the room, Sonic quickly dashed after him, but the steel door closed just before Sonic could reach him. Suddenly two holes opened up from within the room and sea water began pouring in. "I knew it! He's trying to drown me!" Sonic yelled in a panic as he attempted to break open the doors to no avail.

"I'm very sorry, we don't seem to have any tea, I hope you're okay with water instead." Eggman chuckled over an intercom. "This visit sure was great, you could say it was to die for!"

"You forgot one thing Eggman!" Sonic shouted as he began rushing for one of the holes that the water poured out from. "I can just escape from the same place this water enters through!"

"You'll be crushed by water pressure!" Tails' voice shouted through the communication watch. "If you go into the ocean when we're this deep underwater, you'll surely die!"

"What else am I suppose to do!?" This is literally a sink or swim situation!" Sonic yelled into the watch

"I... I don't know!" Tail responded. "Hang on I'm coming!"

The water quickly filled the room. Sonic attempted to swim out, but it was no use. He was now completely submerged in water, quickly losing his breath. "T..Tails, where are you?" Sonic muttered as his voice began to fade. "I.. I think this is it for me buddy..."

Tails desperately screamed into the watch. "Sonic I'm almost there! Sonic can you hear me!? Sonic!? Sonic!? SONIC!?"

To be continued...


	2. Grim News

Darkness, nothing but pitch black darkness. This was all Sonic could see after his encounter with Eggman. Nothing but darkness surrounded the lone blue hedgehog. "Where am I?" he thought to himself. He couldn't even see his own hands in front of him. A sudden sharp pain filled Sonic's entire body. Soon after it was followed by the sound of other voices. The voices were very muffled however. It was impossible to make out any words that were being said. Suddenly a bright light shined through the darkness, filling the room with color. After a quick examination of his surroundings, Sonic noticed he was in some sort of underground bunker. Sonic was strapped to a hospital bed with an oxygen mask placed over his mouth and nose. A few tubes were sticking into him. And in the corner was a heart monitor that seemed to be beeping at a decently consistent pace. After another inspection of the room, Sonic noticed a pink hedgehog in a red dress sitting on a chair near his hospital bed.

"Amy... is that you?" Sonic asked as he looked toward the pink hedgehog.

Instantly the pink hedgehog turned to look in his direction. "Sonic!? I'm not dreaming am I!?" You're actually awake!?" She asked in a panic. "Everyone get over here, Sonic actually woke up!"

"I thought you gave up on that delusion a long time ago," A red echidna responded as he walked into the room, followed by Tails the Fox. "I don't know why you guys think he's coming back to us. We've been keeping him on this machine for months now, it's just taking up space."

"Long time no see Knuckles." Sonic said as he turned his attention to the red echidna.

At that moment both Knuckles and Tails gasped in shock, meanwhile Amy jumped toward the bed hugging Sonic as tight as she could. "It's really you! You're back!" She said as she shed tears.

"Woah, calm down Amy," Sonic replied as he tried to throw her off of him. "Eggman really did a number to me yesterday, I've got to be in good shape to repay him."

Tails' face was filled with concern as he walked towards Sonic. "Actually... you've been knocked out for three and a half months. After I barely rescued you in time, I had to get to work trying to keep you alive."

"Wait a second, three and a half months!?" Sonic shouted in surprise. "How have I been surviving for that long while being knocked out."

"It wasn't exactly easy, thankfully Amy agreed to help maintain you." Tails replied.

"Alright, so that aside, how did you guys handle Eggman in my absence?" Sonic asked as he began to sit up straight.

"Now you see that's another problem..." Tails sighed. "After he took you out no one was able to oppose him. He spent the next few months waging war on the entire planet thanks to the two years he spent building up and army and soon after taking control of all seven chaos emeralds."

Sonic removed the oxygen mask from his face revealing a rather grim expression. "But the entire planet is too much for even Eggman. There's no way one man could win a war against the billions of people on this planet."

"You'd think so, but right now Eggman is in control of 70% of the world," Tails sighed. "We've been losing pretty badly. This bunker alone is near the edge of our controlled territory. But who knows for how long?"

Sonic got up from his bed and removed the tubes that were attached to him. "I'm going to go pay him a personal visit." He said as he cracked his knuckles.

Knuckles walked in front and glared at him in the eye. "What makes you think you can stop him right now? He's in control of all the chaos emeralds, and everyone else that's tried to stop him has failed. "

Sonic put on a cocky grin as he looked back at Knuckles. "That's because stopping Egghead is my job, and there's no one who does it better than me!"

Knuckles sighed as he got out of the way. "You can give it shot, but don't blame if anything happens to you." he muttered as he crossed him arms.

"Don't worry, I'll be back before you even know I was gone," Sonic joked while gesturing towards tails. "Come on Tails, I need a ride."

"Let me go with you too!" Amy insisted as she grabbed on to Sonic's hand.

"You and Knuckles should hold down the fort just in case anything happens." Sonic replied as he turned to look at Amy.

"Alright, just... just don't let anything happen to you this time..." She muttered while she let go of Sonic's hand.

Tails quickly followed after Sonic as the two left the room.

"Alright Tails, what's the plan?" Sonic asked as the two began walking down an underground hallway.

"You shouldn't just run off on dangerous missions without a plan in the first place," Tails responded in a disappointed tone. "However, for starters you'll being needing this." Tails handed over the communication watch that he gave to Sonic back during their trip to the sea.

"Oh hey, this old thing survived underwater?" Sonic asked with an impressed expression as he took the watch from Tails.

"Well, it's an updated model," Tails replied. "I added an emergency button that projects a force field around you in case you get put into another underwater situation."

"Now that's thinking ahead!" Sonic enthused.

"However resources have been limited recently, so it doesn't have enough power to last too long." Tails warned.

As the two arrived at a giant rusty steel door, Tails pushed some buttons on a code pad by the wall next to it which in turn opened the steel door. Inside was a rundown hangar bay for planes to go through. Off in the corner was the Tornado, Tails' red airplane that has gotten the two of them through many adventures in the past. Tails hopped into the cockpit while Sonic jumped up on top of one of the front wings. With the quick press of a few buttons, the plane took off through the hangar and into the air with Tails as its pilot.

Sonic looked over the horizon at the vast sea beneath them that led to a strip of land off in the distance. What was once grassy green plains was replaced with barren wastelands. "Eggman's really done it this time!" he barked.

"That's one of the many territories the Eggman is in control of up ahead," Tails pointed out. "I have a satellite tracker set to follow his mobile fortress that he's been using to move around in. It should be within a few more miles of here."

As the plane began flying over the wasteland, Sonic took a ready position and prepared himself. "Alright, the moment we get in range of the that fortress, I'm breaking in and teaching Eggman a lesson he won't soon for-"

Before Sonic had the chance to finish his sentence he was sent flying towards the ground below from the strike of a dark figure.

"Sonic, are you alright!?" Tails asked from above as he slowed down the tornado to go pick up his friend.

"Yeah," Sonic said while slowly getting back up and rubbing his jaw. "Something hit me right in face."

"You're as slow as ever, blue hedgehog." the mysterious figure mocked as it appeared in front of Sonic.

"That voice... it sounds so familiar." Sonic mentioned while focusing his attention on the figure in front of him. At that same moment Sonic's pained expression turned into an expression of shock and suprise."Wait a second! It's you! Shadow!"

To be continued...


	3. Old Rivals

Shadow the Hedgehog, the self proclaimed ultimate life form, stood before Sonic with his arms crossed as he looked at Sonic in disgust. "You have some guts showing your face around here after what you did to the Space Colony Ark, Blue Hedgehog." He shouted.

"The Ark?" Sonic replied. "You were with me when we stopped it from crashing into the Earth." Sonic replied as he stood up and dusted himself off.

"Do you take me for a fool?" Shadow barked. "The Doctor told me everything! Right before we had the chance to fire a shot from the Eclipse Cannon to wipe out the Earth, you interfered with the controls and set the Ark to self-destruct! If the Doctor hand't help me find an escape pod, I'd of died in the blast too."

"What are you talking about Shadow? None of that ever happened!" Sonic yelled.

At that moment Tails quickly chimed in on the communication watch, as he looked at the confrontation from afar. "There's no point in trying to convince him Sonic. Shadow's been acting like ever since Eggman started waging war on the whole world," He said. "He was one of the first people to rebel against Eggman, but after he confronted Eggman he started to act like this out of nowhere."

"I think I get it, Eggman must've done something to mess with Shadow's memories." Sonic muttered as he scratched his head.

"Enough of this! I'm going to an end to you once and for all, Blue Hedgehog!" Shadow shouted as he charged for Sonic.

Within an instant, Sonic quickly dodged Shadow's attack and turned around to kick Shadow away. "It's going to take more than that to beat me!" Sonic taunted.

Shadow grunted as he got up from the ground. Suddenly Shadow pulled out a green Chaos Emerald from behind him. Before Sonic had any time to react, Shadow yelled "Chaos Control!" Within a single instant, almost as if he teleported, Shadow appeared behind Sonic and punched the back of his head. Sonic was sent the ground in to time at all. Shadow then quickly disappeared again, only to reappear next to the downed Sonic to kick him in the stomach. Although he was in deep pain, Sonic readied himself for Shadow's next attack. As Shadow disappeared once more, Sonic quickly pressed a button on his communication watch, projecting the force field that Tails mentioned to him before. Shadow's next strike was blocked by the transparent green sphere that surrounded Sonics entire body. With quick reactions, Shadow jumped back to a safe distance as he yelled "Chaos Spear!". A yellow light formed around Shadows palms as he began throwing spear like energy at the protected Sonic. However, knowing that his force field was not made to take a lot of damage, Sonic turned it off by pressing the same button and then at his top speed, began to dash toward Shadow while dodging left and right to avoid the spears. In no time at all, Sonic quickly dashed in front of Shadow to catch him off guard. With one swift strike Sonic uppercut Shadow's jaw sending him flying into the air.

As Shadow was sent flying into the air the Chaos Emerald he held in his hand began to slip. Sonic used the opportunity to quickly grab it, but before it came within reach, Shadow shouted "Chaos Control." to teleport the Emerald away.

"What was that for!?" Sonic asked with a displeased expression.

As Shadow got up to recover from the attack he took, he grinned. "The Doctor told me teleport to Chaos Emerald to safety if I ever felt it was in danger. Besides, now that I've got a good understanding of how you fight, I won't need a Chaos Emerald to defeat you!" he taunted.

"We'll see about that!" Sonic responded as he dashed toward Shadow with his fist ready to punch.

With a cocky smirk, Shadow easily blocked Sonics punch with one arm, and then responded with a punch of his own, hitting Sonic directly in the face. This sent Sonic toward to ground. Before Sonic had a chance to recover however, Shadow quickly dashed forward and kicked him while he was down to send him even farther back. "To think someone like you could've taken down the whole Space Colony Ark! You're so pathetic!" Shadow mocked.

Sonic began to get back up off the ground. "I never did tha-" But before he could finish his sentence Shadow delivered another kick, sending Sonic even further back.

"I had enough of these games, I'm going to end you once and for all!" Shadow roared.

"I guess it's time to do what I do best!" Sonic announced as he quickly jumped up and began running away from Shadow at mach speed.

"A coward to the end, how pathetic." Shadow muttered as he began to dash after Sonic. "You can't escape me!"

"I'm not trying to escape you!" Sonic taunted as the two began dashing through the barren wasteland. Sonic began to make a quick U-turn back towards Shadow as he was now headed for a straight on collision course with Shadow.

As the Blue and Black blurs began charging for each other, Sonic prepared his fist to punch Shadow, while Shadow did the same. As the two met both punches were thrown out creating a massive shockwave.

Tails, who was still watching the battle from afar through a pair of binoculars, could not see anything through all the dust the shockwave created. As the dust began to clear it looked like Sonic was panting heavily on his knees. Shadow on the other hand was knocked out on the ground. Sonic was able to land his punch before Shadow could land his.

"Tails, give me a hand, we need to hold down Shadow before he wakes up so that he doesn't do anything rash while we're trying to get Eggman to set his memories straight." Sonic said into his communication watch.

Within a few minutes Tails was landing the Tornado near Sonics location. With the press of a button Tails revealed a hidden cockpit near the tail of the Tornado. Tails pulled out some handcuffs to hold Shadow down, as he put him inside the second cockpit.

"Wait, you had another seat this whole time and you had me riding on the front wings?" Sonic asked.

"Well yeah, I installed it recently and you never asked, you just jumped straight onto the wings." Tails responded. "And besides, I guess it's kind of Shadow's seat now for the time being."

"Alright, then let's keep going." Sonic Sighed as he hopped onto the wings of the Tornado.

Tails laughed to himself as he jumped into the pilot's seat. As he started up the Tornado to prepare for takeoff he noticed Sonic standing up on top the wings pointing his finger forward. "Sonic, are you okay?" Tails asked concerned.

Sonic took a deep breath then yelled at the top of lungs. "Next stop, Dr. Eggman's Mobile Fortress!"


End file.
